President Jokowi Urges Borobudur Temple Managed by a Single Entity

President Jokowi chairs a limited meeting on the management of Borobudur Temple, at Merdeka Palace, Jakarta, on Tuesday (06/13). (Photo: PR of Cabinet Secretariat/Agung)

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo chaired a limited meeting on the management of Borobudur Temple, at Merdeka Palace, Jakarta, on Tuesday (06/13). In his directive, President Jokowi urged that the temple as one of the super priority tourism destinations (DPSP) to be managed by a single entity.

“Bapak President also directed to immediately prepare the presidential regulation which will name the single destination management organization to manage Borobudur Temple area,” Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy Sandiaga Uno said after attending the meeting.

In addition, the President also directed to immediately complete the heritage impact assessments document processing on Borobudur tourism area management which has been submitted last March in order to get approval from UNESCO.

“It needs to be done seriously, because we want to develop tourism in Borobudur that has the aspects of culture and conservation, and to create positive impacts with quality and sustainability as well,” Minister Sandiaga explained.

Minister Sandiaga hoped that the five DPSPs promoted by the Government, including Borobudur, can be ready soon to boost tourism recovery in Indonesia. The Government has targeted to reach 14 million international tourists visiting in 2024.

“Specially for Borobudur, with 42 million buddhist people in ASEAN, it can be a spiritual tourism destination that has the capacity to accomodate more than 20 million international tourists in the next years,” Minister Sandiaga further explained.

The infrastructure that supports connectivity, such as airport, toll road, and railway, to Borobudur area is expected to create 4.4 million job opportunities in 2024 as targeted.

“With the interconnection through infrastructure, including Yogyakarta Internasional Airport, toll road, railway, and other tourist destinations in Borobudur area, such as village economic hall and tourism village, it is targeted to create 4.4 million new job opportunities in 2024,” he described.

Meanwhile, the President Director of InJourney Dony Oskaria mentioned that some actions will be taken to manage Borobudur, including establishing a single authority management.

“First of all, the presidential regulation should be issued to appoint the single authority management. Hopefully, by the appointment of the single authority management, it will be easier for us to do the management and marketing of Borobudur abroad,” Dony expressed. 

Besides, Donny further explained, his team will reviu the Borobudur masterplan thoroughly.

 “Certainly, it is prioritized first, for conservation, second, for spiritual activities, third, for education, and fourth, we hope that it will give good impact on Indonesian tourism,” Dony highlighted. (FID/UN)(AW/LW)